Students in the Holocaust and Genocide class create a timeline of events to show that tolerating hate is often a progression. Photo courtesy of Peyton Ash.
On Wednesday night, February 15, around 7:30 p.m., the Boone Police Department dispatched in response to a report of a swastika flag being waved outside of the Jewish synagogue Temple. The flag was draped over the Temple of The High Country's sign when first responders arrived and the suspect had fled.
In order to prevent such an incident from happening again, Boone Police and investigators are currently looking into this matter and working with the Temple to enhance security.
In response to this controversial and hateful incident that has occurred within the small town of Boone, the Holocaust and Genocide class, under the guidance of Ms. Carrie Boone, has prepared the following statement:
To the Watauga Community,
Only 81 years ago Hitler sent his most trusted officials to resolve what was formerly known as the “Jewish Question”. Today, the “answer” to that question is now known as the Holocaust, a mass genocide of Jewish people and other minority groups across Europe.
Kristallnacht, the first instance of Nazi-organized, mass violence against the Jewish population dates back to November 1938. Neighbors and friends turned against their Jewish peers, destroying their property, desecrating their graves, and stripping their dignity. Swastikas were painted as targets on Jewish homes and businesses to signal that the Jews should no longer be trusted. Nazi policy became solely focused on eliminating Jewish influence in German-occupied territory. These anti-Semitic policies later followed the regime as it attempted to spread itself across Europe during the Second World War.
After the Wannsee conference, the Nazis made an organized and systematic effort to eliminate entire groups of people(s). The Nazi killing machines built extermination and concentration camps throughout Europe. By means of torture, murder, and tantalizing working conditions, millions were killed at the hands of the Third Reich.
Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel once said, “To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” In our Holocaust and Genocide class at Watauga High School, we learned that these acts of hate did not happen spontaneously but instead grew gradually. We built a multi-layered timeline that includes historical events, individual victim biographies and discriminatory laws. We studied each layer, year, and fact to understand the context of this complicated history and to ensure that we will not forget the atrocities that took place.
There is an apparent gap within the Watauga community that needs to be addressed. Anti-Semitic hate acts in the High Country have happened in the past, most identified with the use of the swastika. Throughout 2018- 2021, there were multiple acts of vandalism in high foot traffic areas in the community and on ASU’s campus including anti-Semitic symbols and phrases. From 2020 to 2021 there has been a 34% increase in anti-Semitic hate acts across the United States of America. Last week the Temple of the High Country, a Jewish place of worship on King Street, was the most recent target of an anti-Semitic hate act: a Nazi flag was waved outside their property and later draped over their sign.
Hatred is a learned behavior that may not be obvious at first glance. The Pyramid of Hate is the theory of how hatred and prejudice build on top of one another over time. This growth of hatred begins with biased attitudes toward a select group of people. These thoughts can evolve into acts of bias like bullying and offensive language. These perspectives and acts are the most prevalent behaviors on social media. From here, outward discrimination can take place from the local to national level. The next levels are bias-motivated violence like vandalism, assault, and murder. If this behavior is not prevented at earlier levels this can lead to genocide: the mass extermination of a group or culture via killing, forced relocation, preventing births, and the erasure of culture.
We feel that we must be responsible for taking care of one another. Misinformation breeds rapidly; we cannot make change without knowing the correct context or information. By using critical thinking we can diversify our worldview and reinforce problem-solving skills. We can become more open to other people's points of view that might not match ours and connect to one another on an emotional level. Critical thinking, empathy, and respect are all building blocks to having a safer environment.
People are entitled to their own opinion, based on their own experiences and beliefs. Nevertheless, freedom of speech should not be used as a weapon or an excuse to dehumanize a culture or group of people. People should use their freedom of speech as a tool to educate the people within their spheres of influence on important cultural issues and to prevent large-scale hate from becoming mainstream. Allowing ignorance and false information to permeate our culture and beliefs and misusing free speech to spread an anti-semitic agenda is an act of discrimination detrimental to all, not just our Jewish neighbors.
As members of your community, we ask that you educate yourself and share with others about the history of anti-Semitism within the Watauga community and how it affects individuals today. As high school juniors and seniors, we encourage you to spread the word about the recent events that have happened and use your own freedom of speech as a tool to educate your communities on important cultural issues to prevent hatred from becoming mainstream. You can find more information about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, in your local library, from local educators, and from the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust.
We will continue to support and uplift the Jewish community of the High Country. Please do your part by informing and uplifting one another.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”- Elie Wiesel
-The Holocaust and Genocide Class of Watauga High School
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